July 23, 2024
By Matt Crawford
My dad was in his 60s when he caught his first white perch.
In a vacuum, that doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. But here's the background: My dad grew up on northern Lake Champlain and fished it hard from the 1950s onward. But it wasn't until the start of the 21st century before white perch became ubiquitous there. White perch first appeared in Lake Champlain in the mid-1980s but didn't establish a strong population in the northern reaches of the big lake that lies between upstate New York and Vermont until my father reached retirement age in the early 2000s.
They're certainly here now—in full force—and the story of white perch in Lake Champlain mirrors that in hundreds of waterbodies across the northeastern United States. From an ecological perspective, the spread of white perch is far from a feel-good story. For anglers looking for an easy-to-catch, good-to-eat panfish, however, white perch deserve some attention.
So let's give them some.
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Invaders From The Coast Let’s be clear: Taxonomically, the white perch we’re talking about are referred to as Morone americana . In some places, they are often confused with white bass, a species in the same family that, in fairness, looks fairly similar. The two species do overlap, particularly in the Great Lakes, and they can hybridize. That makes the picture even fuzzier.
White bass, native to the Midwest, are generally found from Lake Ontario to Minnesota and down to Louisiana. White perch are smaller and a coastal species—native from Down East Maine to the brackish waters of South Carolina. But white perch rapidly expanded their range, swimming through the Erie Canal network and appearing in Great Lakes regions by the 1950s. By the 1980s, white perch were found in all the Great Lakes and they've pushed into waterbodies as far west as Nebraska and Kansas and as far south as Alabama.
Fisheries managers classify white perch as an invasive species detrimental to the ecosystems they show up in. The issues with white perch are three-fold: Crossbreeding with white bass is an issue, they compete with other species for zooplankton which can contribute to algae blooms, and their ravenous appetites mean they prey on eggs and larvae of different species, including walleye.
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Appetites For Destruction Knowing that white perch are "predacious and opportunistic feeders" makes things a whole lot easier for anglers. Since they are not particularly fussy eaters, that means much of what's already in your tacklebox is likely to work.
White perch habitat is essentially wherever you find them. As one scientific outlet so eloquently says, "They are generally found near shore and are an open-water species, showing little preference for any substrate type." They can be caught from shore, in deep water, and generally wherever you might find other species like yellow perch or bluegills. Massive schools of white perch will roam in search of food, meaning you might target them in shallow, weedy water one day and find them suspended in deep water the next.
The Holy Panfish Trinity of a snelled hook, nightcrawler, and a bobber is deadly, but if you get into a school of white perch and want to fill a bucket, you'll go through a dozen nightcrawlers in no time. Ditto for using small minnows—another super effective bait.
Since white perch rarely exceed the 1-pound mark, keep in mind that small baits will be the most effective. Small spoons, spinners, and stickbaits will all work to various degrees of success.
Like most panfish, you don't need high-end rods and reels or fluorocarbon lines to catch white perch. A smaller spinning combo with 4-pound test is more than enough to do the job. Heck, even the old Zebco 33 Spincast Combo you had as a kid is more than enough.
Summer School One of my favorite ways to catch white perch on Lake Champlain in the summer months is to find large schools of them feeding on or near the surface. Because white perch are chasing zooplankton and the smaller baitfish also feasting on that zooplankton, they don't seem to be keyed to any particular structure. I've found massive schools of white perch breaking the surface a few miles from shore, in water 75 deep or more.
In my experience, white perch can be boat-shy, so once I find myself near a school of feed fish, I am careful to not make a ruckus in the boat, and I avoid starting the big motor if I can.
Whether you’re drifting or using a trolling motor, quietly work to stay within casting distance of the school. I like to throw a 2-inch Yo-Zuri pin minnow in blue/chrome or silver/black, but—as mentioned above—just about any small stickbait or spinner will work.
Tasty! I once discussed with a fisherman from Maine his thoughts on the taste differences between yellow and white perch. After all, he comes from a place where anglers have been catching both species in tandem for decades, and his go-to meal at his hunting camp in the North Maine Woods is a fried fish dinner, complete with French fries made from Maine potatoes.
It was a long discussion, but the upshot is this: A whole bunch of people prefer the delicate taste of white perch to that of the sweeter yellow perch. Either way, they both work splendidly as the main course in a fish fry.
On Lake Champlain, for several reasons, it is easier to catch white perch in that 10-12-inch range than yellow perch of the same size. And since you get larger filets from larger fish, I find myself targeting and keeping more white perch.
I like to think that keeping and eating an invasive species like white perch means I'm doing my fishery a favor. That's likely a bit of a stretch since the booming white perch population on Lake Champlain will not be affected by recreational fishing pressure. But hey, it’s a reason to go fishing—as if I need another one.
